eVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard 122-CK-NF68-A1 Reviews

• EVGA's service is great, but unfortunately you will need it a lot...

  
  By A1R88CQ3BVD5KP on 2007-10-21
  If you notice on other websites, you will see a lot of people raving about this board. Then a month or two later, you will see them edit or write a negative review asking why it no longer posts.
  
  Customer Service/Support: First of all, this board is manufactured by Fox Conn, EVGA is the vendor and provides the support. They do not test their replacement boards. A lot of of current owners have reported that they get DOA motherboards, including myself. Yet the problem continues to persist. Time is important. Having several days of downtime while waiting for your replacement, on top of wasting 4-5 hours disassembling your computer and reassembling your computer and then finding out you have a dead motherboard and have to repeat? I'm not saying that their services are decent, but no amount of service is enough to deal with the frustrations of this board.
  
  If you read the message boards from EVGA, there is a known issue with the Memory Controller constantly dieing out. This is due to a fatal design flaw with the cooling.
  
  What does this mean to you? You can expect the motherboard to give out over time, especially if you like to overclock, don't expect it to work for very long. I've had 4 boards die on me due to the same problem, and I am not an aggressive overclocker.
  
  I have 1200mhz rated ram which I have to run underclocked to 800mhz because the memory controller keeps dieing on these Foxconn boards. Yet even with this known issue, EVGA support has yet to my knowledge brought this to the attention of the manufacturer.
  
  
  What does this mean to you? You will be paying a premium for a motherboard that won't utilize your expensive computer parts. You are paying for an overclocking board, but you will not be able to overclock without worrying about overheating. A lot of RMAs. A lot of downtime. A lot of money spent on shipping. A lot of time with disassembling your computer and reassembling it.
  
  
  
  
  

• Great 680i SLI motherboard

  
  By A26NZBB29S3DBS on 2007-05-16
  If you are an enthusiast or an overclocker (OC), then you know you want the Nvidia 680i chipset. However, you probably also know of the inordinate amount of problems that chipset has. Well, where as Asus has refused and/or been slow to fix most of the 680i problems (killing RAM, POST problems, keyboard/mouse problems, SATA drive problems,etc...) eVGA and others have actually worked on correcting them. Now, no 680i board is bug free, but the eVGA board revision A1 (and T1) has fixed a lot of the problems, like other companies like Gigabyte. However, eVGA stands out for the excellent customer support. In both sense eVGA is the opposite of ASUS... they fix the problem with the boards AND provide excellent customer service.
  
  

• One tight mobo

  
  By A1WAYVM44HACOO on 2008-08-04
  I just got this thing in the other day. Installed it in a Cooler Master 690 case. Fastened my Intel Quad Core Q6600 with 4 gig of ram and 8800 GT video card. The Zalman 9700 heatsink fits nicely. What can I say this thing screams.
  
  

• Yes, Yes, and yes

  
  By A3D8ZM5S6SBTOW on 2008-07-28
  I just got this and wow I can't believe the possibilities this mobo has to offer. Gammers and overclockers if you dont want to fork out the dough for a 780i then this is the ticket. You can run three-way SLI, only with the 8800 & 9800 GTX series nvidia graphics cards under Vista @ 16x X 16x X 8x, and an up gradable board for the future. If you have an understanding on overclocking, the BIOS is fairly easy to use lots of options and nice layout for cases with the PSU above the mobo. Plenty of onboard 3-way pin connectors for fans and a nice north bridge cooling sulution with the fan I am very pleased seeing that the 680i chipsets can get pretty hot (note: besure to have good air flow or some type of high performance coolingfor your case). Plan on running RAID? It supports all RAID functions. With the right hardware this could be a nasty gamming system. I have had no Issues with EVGA and this is my 2nd build using the 680i mobo I and the buyers are pleased.
  
  

• EVGA 680i ROCKS!!!

  
  By AN92OOYVIZMKF on 2007-07-01
  My first board gave the dreaded memory death code C1. Contacted EVGA and the firmware update did not fix it. Amazon promptly exchanged and the new board emerged like the millenium falcon from the asteroid field.
  This is one incredible board.
  I've got intel quad-core QX6700,
  x2 EVGA NVIDIA 8800GTX in SLI,
  x2 2GB OCZ DDR-800 memory,
  x3 Seagate 750GB SATA II
  packed in Giga-byte 3D Aurora 570 chassis
  using Gateway FPD2485W widescreen LCD panel
  
  This system rocks!!! Games that were choppy at one time are like quicksilver. The graphics lush and the responses nimble.
  The whole thing cost $$$ but was worth it
  The board is very stable in SLI and the whole thing is running fairly cool. I'm impressed with this board and would highly reccommend it if you are thinking of SLI for your next rig.
  BTW, MS office, visio, and other "productivity" things scream!!!
  
  
• Perfection in a motherboard
  By AW4HFILCSLX25 on 2007-06-01
  I was going to buy the cheaper version of this board (the dual-core-only model) but decided it was worth the few extra dollars for a lifetime warranty. Lifetime warranty! That's unheard of for motherboards. Make sure to register the board immediately after receiving it (within 30 days) so you get the lifetime warranty.
  
  The northbridge fan is very loud at 100%. Turn it down in the BIOS (range is 50-100%) to 50% and you can barely hear it over case fans. The board is laid out extremely well. Plenty of room to put a Ninja on top, even with a huge 8800 right next to it.
  
  I was able to overclock easily, thanks to the large amount of voltage and divider options on this board. Asus' P5B boards don't allow voltages to be set nearly as finely or as high. The times that it locked from overclocking too high, my USB keyboard stopped working. I had to cut power to the board (via power supply, not power button) before it would recognize the keyboard again.
  
  I would buy this board again. I was initially wondering if I really wanted to spend this much, but the piece of mind and knowing that it'll support procs far into the future mean it will be worth it.
  
  
• same mistake twice
  By A3MWUH3A1HQYWS on 2007-07-05
  never buy this product from amazon... if so go thru their afilliated retailers like tigerdirect. i bought the board from amazon and it came doa. so i made a replacement and that came in doa as well but this time smoke started coming out of it when i plugged the psu into it. if i could i would give it 0 stars but thats not an option for rating. hey, i'll admit their replacement process is good because they give free shipping.
  
  
• GOOD BUT It; it did not work at first needed rma
  By APYC0XU7QLSXC on 2007-08-22
  I bought it, worked fine, than pci express brige went and took the ram controllers with it, sent back got new one now it works fine
  
  
• If it works is the best mobo ever
  By AVXBY00P6WQ4J on 2007-09-05
  If your don't experience some weird issues with it, you'll have in your hands once of the finest overclockers, but there are risks, like a bad bios chip (I had it and resolved it by swaping it for an old one... and I know not everyone is willing or able to do that). By the forums at EVGA and the ratings in Newegg there is a good 20 - 25 percent of chance to have some kind of problem. Not for the fainted of heart.
  
  
• The best SLI board period.
  By A12O2FEGSHF4EA on 2007-10-08
  I own both the Asus Striker Extreme and this EVGA 680i board, and the EVGA is much better. Make sure you have all the current drivers installed. Easy to overclock and very stable.
  
  
• EXCELLENT BOARD - no issues after over 6 months
  By A27QXQQOLAMRRR on 2007-11-06
  I've had this board for now over 6 months or better running with a dual core E6600 chip and I have yet to have a problem with it. I haven't overclocked due to the fact that my PC is on all the time. I shut it down once every few days then restart a short time later.
  
  I like to run a lot of system intesive prgrams all at the same time and This board and chip along with my ram choice has been a pleasure all around. I have not updated to the new BIOS and even without the update I have not had any issues.
  
  I called eVGA support once for another issue on a different product as well as to get some general questions answered, I couldn't be more pleased with their support. The support line individuals were all polite, answered my questions fully and even tipped me off to a few other things that were just good to know about the products.
  
  eVGA the mother board management tools that come with this board are just outstanding. I can go in and change any setting right from windows without issue. I can up my fan speed if I'm going to be doing a lot of work and want to get them cool a little more before I start going crazy.
  
  Supported RAM: make sure you check the eVGA site before you buy any ram for this board. I did and haven't had an issue, I'm running dual 2 gig chips and they work great at 800mhz.
  
  If you are looking for a board you will be happy with this one!
  
  Also check their site as they offer lifetime warranties on certain Boards, Video cards, and so on. Registering for the Lifetime warranty is a breeze!
  
  
• One of your only options to run an SLI setup
  By ASDWW4X3L41D6 on 2007-11-15
  To be honest, I was nervous about going with this board. For now I am only running one EVGA GTX card but wanted the option of dropping in another one down the road. This limited my options considerably and was "forced" into the 680i. I've read quite a few reviews about the 680i having alot of problems ranging from FSB holes to memory controller flaws. The A1 revision has solved most of these issues and the great EVGA BIOS releases fix even more.
  
  So far I've been running on this board for about 3 months with a Q6600@3.2 and 2GB's of Corsairs Dominator Twin2X2048-8500C5D@ 1066mhz without a hitch. I am using the P30 BIOS release and haven't tried the P31 yet. The new P31 release is said to solve a few glitches and provide a better OC on quad cores but I'm happy where I'm at so I haven't tried it.
  
  If these issues that people are talking about take a long time to surface then maybe I just didn't wait long enough, but in my 3 months I haven't had a problem yet. Even is I did its comforting to know EVGA has a fantastic RMA procedure and a great warranty. I know its a pain swapping boards but its good to know the company will help you along the way. Even the cross shipping option is great in that you don't have to wait for them to receive the defective board. You get a RA# and they ship the replacement ASAP. Can't really ask for more than that, and its by far better than alot of other manufacturers offer.
  
  I'm also running Vista(32bit) with an X-treme Gamer card and havent had any snaps, crackles, or pops. Just all around good board IMO. I havent tried maxing out my OC but I've read and heard of numerous people getting Q6600's to OC to 3.4GHz+ on air using this board. I completely understand the frustration of getting a faulty product I just havent experianced these issues as of yet so I cant knock this board.
  
  The SLI feature, even though I don't use it yet, I think is its biggest selling point. You're choice is very limited if you plan on running two GPU's. Then the fact that its also able to run processors with a 1033/1333MHs FSB gives you peace of mind in terms of upgradeability. Another big selling point for me was the dual PCI-E x16 lanes to fully support the GTX card.(which takes two PCI-E connections). Although I am running 32bit Vista as of now, I'm very happy to know this board is 64bit compliant. I may very well decide to go that route once driver support for 64 bit hardware/software is more widely distributed. My main reason for that is to be able to use more RAM, mmmmmm RAM! :D
  
  Being pretty novice to the OC'ing world I welcomed the easy to understand BIOS features and very handy onboard reset switch complimented by an onboard diagnostic LED. These features make OC'ing and diagnosing your mistakes much easier. Right off the bat the diagnostic LED saved me countless hours in letting me know I'm a moron and OC'ed my memory much too high and didn't give it enough voltage. I knew this because it gave me a number on POST which I looked up in the manual and knew exactly what the problem was. Great!
  
  So, with the inclusion of the A1 revision and the often updated BIOS releases I don't see a reason to fret. There may be better boards out there if you don't plan on running an SLI config, but even then, I haven't had any problems whatsoever with any of its functions. Its certainly working to my expectations and even beyond in terms of how easy to use and overclock it is. And again, EVGA is one of the best companies I've come across with its helpful forums, great warranty, its step up program, and much more. I'm just happy to have found a hardware supplier willing to swap out hardware and honor their warranty, even with the consumer OC'ing or adding after market gear to it. I've had no problems with this board, it was easy to OC, made diagnosing painless, runs all my hardware well, and has a warranty to back it up. Recommended.
  
  
• Best board in it's class.
  By A3P2TXT2WDMZR6 on 2008-03-25
  Great board, good price, easy to overclock; what's more to say.
  If your looking for the end all be all, this board is it as far as I'm concerned!
  Core 2 Duo E6750 overclocked to 3.6 and will go more, 2 XFX 8600GT XXX in sli. Will play any game, and it's fast! If your serious about gaming this will do it at a good price! Amazon is the best.
  
  
• Superb board, exactly what I was looking for
  By A3NQMUY09BNH2Q on 2008-10-15
  
  This is a great mother board which should satisify most gamers and overclockers.
  It was the basis for a powerful gaming computer, and I am not disappointed in the least. It is exactly what I wanted, and I really think it outperforms the other boards I have seen.
  It is stable, and it has been almost two years now since I have been using it.
  
  I am "only" using the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Dual-Core Processor, a 65 nm Conroe, and a single GPU; a GeForce 8800 GTX with 768 Mb of video memory.
  The psu is 700 watt. The fans are board adjustable and can be made very quiet.
  
  The setup is totally overclockable for both the CPU and GPU, and a wide range of over and under voltage can be applied, and it all can be upgraded if necessary. This board is able to take new 45 nm CPU quad cores.
  
  Yes, I could go to a quad core and another 8800 GTX in SLI;
  *BUT*, it is not necessary to upgrade at all.
  I have put the most demanding games on this system and have no lag whatsoever. It always stays above 50 frames per second at maximum GPU settings, usually above 100 frames at 1600 X 1200 resolution. There is no lag, no artifacts, nada.
  
  I did manage to overclock the Core duo 6600 to 3.4 Ghz on air alone, but there is really no need, and I am back at the stock 2400 speed.
  
  I will pass something on which really improved performance; I matched the RAM memory speed to the GPU memory speed, which is 900 mhz. This was a mild overclock from the previous 800 Mhz RAM speed. The memory voltage, 1.85V, remains the same stock voltage. My RAM is 2 matched sticks of 1GB Corsair.
  
  Well, it is near perfect, and I am not going to fix it.
  I recommend it highly.
  
  
  
  
• computer build
  By A77MXWK83IYD0 on 2007-11-11
  I was going to build a new computer and wanted one I could upgrade.
  So thought I would use [...] to buy all my parts since I'd been using them for years. So here are a list of parts I bought and a review.
  I did buy the Ram from the manufacturer, Crucial 2 GB PC2-8500 CL5 EPP and one liteon DVD drive I bought here in town.
  The only problem was the Evga motherboard (it was DOA when it got here)
  but Evga support had a new one to my house in about 3 days and everything had worked better than expected.
  List of parts I had bought from [...]
  eVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard 122-CK-NF68-A1
  Core 2 Duo E6850 Processor
  PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB Graphics Card
  Ultra X-Finity ULT31848 600-Watt Power Supply Unit (Black)
  2 Seagate 300 GB Internal SATA Hard Drive 16MB Cache ( ST3300622AS-RK )Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card
  X-blaster Atx Mid-tower Case
  Lite-On 20x Super All Write LightScribe Internal DVD/Dual Layer RW Drive
  Samsung SyncMaster 920NW 19" LCD Monitor
  Cyberpower CP1200AVR UPS - 1200VA/720W AVR 8-Outlet
  I would have given it 5 stars except that the first motherboard was bad.
  But EVGA was so good on the support end I really can't complain.
  
  
• The best motherboard for hi end Intel solutions
  By A2SBFXPN5V6A6X on 2007-11-14
  I went from an Asus Striker motherboard to the MSI motherboard for my own power system and so far am impressed with this gem. The Asus MB as most Asus motherboards gave me issues especially with overclocking.
  
  The T1 version of this board is the same minus the manual and cables for $30 less.
  
  My primary goal was to obtain a trouble free performance motherboard with excelled overlocking abilities and must say that so far this board has met most of my expectations.
  
  I had this board at first with two 8800GTX video cards before selling them (market will soon crash with them with the new G92's coming out) for SLI 8800GT video cards.
  
  Installed in a Lian Li case with a 1000w Enermax Galaxy psu.
  My Q6600 overclocked straight to 3700mhz with little effort and now is settled at 3840mhz stable Prime 24 hours. My Striker was only able to hit 3400mhz max. 1707 FSB.
  
  One odd issue with this board is the random jump of the multiplier from 9x to 6x for no apparent reason. Only some cores make this jump and the latest BIOS update was suppose to correct this but did not 100%. However with increased voltage I have not seen this for some time. This is NOT Speedstep kicking in but a known problem.
  
  My 3DMARK01 scores are 69k, 3Dmark06 score is 19.7K. This board flies.
  
  Included with the MB is a fan for the NB and various cables that I honestly wonder why manufactures still include such as IDE cables. If someone is dropping $250 for a MB then surely they are getting it for the performance and not running old drives or slow processors.
  
  This is my first MSI board for personal use and I must say that so far it is impressive. Good overclocking, good BIOS options, typical manual layout, so far reliable.
  
  The board does have Raid options of course and I highly recommend that you back up your data before swapping over to this or any other board. I placed my 150gb of videos and pictures onto my network drive with it's own backup and good thing as I was forced to reformat my Stripped Raid setup with this motherboard as it did not recognize my Raid from the Asus board.
  
  EVGA also has a good support website though registration can be problematic at time. But it is a good source for dedicated support on their products keeping mind that every little kid in the universe that built 2 computers who now thinks they know everything about the subject is on there posting their opinions.
  
  Highly recommend for the power computer user.
  
  
  
  
• great board, strong overclockable mounster
  By A2J68A4O1P5OMR on 2007-09-15
  i can set my e600 core 2 up to 3.57 easy and still using my 6400c memorys
  with no problems ,easy install 24/7 live chat or phone support,easy raid
  0,01,5 setup,and great gaming performance,my system score up to 5.6 with
  this baby,i got 2 evga 8600 512mb,and water cooling system,in vista x64 ultimate,mate,no bugs,great digi sound.... great from EVGA people.i got no
  complain,ahh i forgot mension LIFETIME WARRANTY .
  
  
  
• Excellent motherboard
  By ALYAV31BNKA8Z on 2007-11-10
  Very stable. I was able to OC my 1.8GHz CPU to 3.3GHz. I am glad I got this one instead of Asus P5K. Very happy with my purchase. Did I mention lifetime warranty for this board from EVGA?
  
  
• It needs a little visit to the stability department.
  By A1AOK8IY4F9OKZ on 2007-11-20
  Let me start by saying I did not have any WEIRD problems with this MOBO besides the fact that It was NOT up to the overclocking levels as other manufacturers.
  That said, there are some anoying isues as well. Some of the jumpers did not work as spected, such as the power and USB ones. The led on the power button, connected as instructed, never works and in some cases it lights up when the machine is off. The USB front, again hooked up as instructed does not function and there are no instuctions on how to set up the hard drive activity led to the mobo.
  But my biggest dissapointment was the inestability of the card while overclocking my Q6600 while I was reading reviews that such tasks were able on other motherboards.
  The onboard power and reset buttons are a welcomed addition and the two gb ethernet ports as well. I just wish it handled better for overclockers.
  By the way, the control panel software from nVidia crashes if you try to measure temps and any changes to the BIOS made from there really do not alter anything. SLI works quite well and Vista recognized all devices without any driver requests. Overall there are better choices for overclockers such as the ASUS SLi. J.
  
  
• a waste of time
  By A86640F5BL2KW on 2007-12-03
  Beware of this mobo. Like other poster said, it will waste more hours than anyone should care to waste. I don't even overclock and I can't keep this mobo running for more than 3 days straight without having it to start flaking out memory wise. Also, if you unplug power to board and replug it in (cold boot), this thing will give you C1 posting errors (which can be recovered actually without RMA'ing board if you're skilled). But honestly, this board must have some serious hardware defects. Constant issues that never seem to be fixed with latest BIOS updates. I suspect there's some sort of voltage problems with this board, but who knows...many theories on the EVGA boards.
  
  
• Junk
  By A32OACMIZSY24O on 2007-12-07
  Don't know if it is the chipset or the manufacturer, but this board is junk. 1st arrived DOA. -- on the MB LCD. Did an RMA, got a replacement board which wouldn't recognize the EVGA 8800GT graphics card in slot 1. Moved to Slot 3, and got as far as the BIOS once or twice, but kept locking up - This is with a tested 800watt SLI PS, Quad core intel cpu, and one stick of PC2 6400 RAM sitting on the box - bare minimum install - EVGA support agreed it sounded like another bad board and offered to send a 3rd board. No Thanks, returned to Amazon for a refund, and ordered a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4. Maybe try SLI another day, for now going for stability. I hope I have better luck with their graphics card.
  
  
• GREAT PRODUCT
  By AIC1XXLGYZNO3 on 2007-12-11
  This is a great product, for the enthusiastic, i read somewhere that it is safer to remove the mosfet heatsink and remove the original thermal paste, and apply a thin layer of ceramic paste instead.
  
  I have been using this MB for 6 months without any problem.
  
  Intel Core2Duo 6600 stock speed
  XFX Nvidia 8600 GT XXX 256 MB
  2 GB OCZ DDR-800
  4 Western Digital WD800JD in Raid 0
  Acer AL1916W 19" LCD Monitor
  
  
  
• Great board at good price
  By A9E9C4A7FP2FE on 2007-12-14
  This was my first build and the board rocks! Like anything else, get in and learn and understand the product before you try and do this, but to anyone who wonders about the abilities of SLI this is the board to get and EVGA cannot be beat!
  
  
  
• So far So good
  By AEP4ULOSGPZ6R on 2007-12-17
  This is the first computer I have ever built. Only had one issue. I didn't install an 'A' drive and had to disable it in the bios. Not worth even mentioning, but you would think it would recognize it wasn't there and would default to loading the CD first. Don't remember the error, but has a little nerve racking for a few. Luckily looked at EVGA's web sight and others had the same issue so it got resolved quite quickly.
  
  
• Great Overclocking
  By A16OSRJYL0TP2C on 2007-12-18
  Great motherboard. Good layout and lots of features. Awesome overclocking. Ordered 2 and both worked right out of the box. Recognized all of my components. Highly recommended for new rigs and overclocking.
  
  

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional FULL VERSION with SP2
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2B for System Builders - 1 Pack
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core Processor, 2.40 GHz, 8M L2 Cache, LGA 775
• Corsair Dominator 2 GB (2 X 1 GB) 240-pin DDR2 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Dual-Core Processor, 2.4 GHz, 4M L2 Cache, LGA775
• Corsair XMS2 2 GB (2 X 1 GB 240-pin DDR2 800Mhz Dual Channel Memory Kit
• Antec Nine Hundred Steel ATX Ultimate Gamer PC Case (Black)